Amberle in ...

so its been more than a week since the last blog. time travels fast. i've been here for one month now. these days have been so busy and full, sometimes i feel like 3 days worth of activity have past. So my lollipop and unicorn Uganda is being slowly replaced by the reality of living life. As you may have heard, during my first 5 minutes of driving, our van was hit in the rear by a fast moving matatu (van/taxi) fortunately no one was injured, our van was slightly scraped on the bumper, and it was totally the other guy's fault as we were turning and completely in the other lane. Unfortunately, the driver did not see our point of view and a spectacle ensued including yelling, wild gesticulating, attempted theft of keys, and general argumentativeness. Someone ended up calling the police and from there we went through a pretty logical, fair process of filling out a report and getting the van inspected. David, the very nice traffic cop, said I should take the driver to court to teach him a lesson, but the prospect of spending considerable time in Ugandan courts does not appeal to me. (major props to my friends for their help and support and especially their hysterical wild gesturing in my defense) And later that night I pinched my finger in the door of the gate.

The following day we had our buying meeting and someone stole my chacos from right outside. grr. again, much support came my way...."Sorry Auntie, I give you my shoes." Don't worry, i'm not barefoot and hopefully Santa (no not the suubi lady, the mythical gift-giver) will bring me new shoes for xmas.

On the positive side, this week i was invited to do some more Acholi dancing with some suubi women in another village called Soweto. While Melissa and Joe went to attend the birth of a suubi lady's baby, i was escorted by some women to the other side of the tracks (figuratively and literally) They tied a sash around my waist and made me follow in step to drumming and gourding(?) and whistle blowing. Everyone in the area was highly amused. I was invited back for next week. My guess is they enjoy my mzungu-shaking more than my dancing skills.

I continue to visit more women and spend a considerable amount of time chatting and crafting. (and i will reiterate how much i enjoy chatting and crafting while sitting on a mat in the shade) I have also begun to tutor a group of former streetboys who live in a home in my neighborhood. I am attempting to continue Uncle Ian's great work in preparing the boys to begin attending school in February. They are supercute and uber-polite. They are teaching me Lugandan while I teach them English. The suubi ladies continue to instruct me in Acholi Luo. So now i know sheep=endiga=romo. I am learning slowly, slowly.

I am continuing to attempt the opening of bank accounts for the women and setting up "direct deposit" from Suubi to Finca. I was pleased to learn that quite a few of our ladies already have accounts. So we will begin at the beginning and start with them.

I started with our "do everything lady" Betty in the market, where, after they found out i worked for no money, I was enlisted to cut cassava in Betty's friend, Joanne's, "restaurant": two benches a table, some plastic chairs and 3 charcoal stoves bubbling away. It is good african food: matoke, beans, rice, greens, sweet potato, and meat. I had some drinks with the house-friends and continued to on to have a drink and a chat with 2 brothers: a civil engineer and a university lecturer on social work. we attempted to solve the problems of uganda using our intellectual skill and waragi and smirnoff and fanta. i think we made some good progress, but i can't really remember what it was. I do remember that I learned that I live 5 doors down from the mayor of Jinja. They were very nice Ugandan men who introduced me to Juliet, the owner of the establishment.
So its easy to make Ugandan friends while sitting and chatting, but then I walk away and think "Maybe its just because I'm a mzungu and they think that i can do something for them like get them into America or give them money." or in the case of men "Maybe they just want to sleep with me." None of these people Levi, Patrick, Juliet, and Joanne from last night asked for anything or made any overt moves or exposed ulterior motives. (I'll take hand holding from both genders as friendship based only) I guess I will just continue as if they were potential friends from anywhere until they give me a reason to think otherwise. I'm continually thinking about balancing the safety (emotional, physical) with the fact that I want to actually participate with these people and not walk around with the good old subway stare.
Well, time to go. while i've typed, i've listened to madonna, whitney houston, lots of folky jesus music, r.kelly, and usher.
i hope all is well by you and yours.

ps: To CFS: wan wang waribe cachiel. everyone sends their greetings and misses you mucho.